Big news from the UAW strike came off the wire earlier this evening: Ford and UAW appear to have reached a tentative agreement. Any agreement will require ratification to be finalized—that'll involve UAW officials signing off on the deal, and then a simple majority of Ford's 57,000 unionized workers passing it—but early public opinion of this deal seems quite positive overall.
Among other headlining provisions, CNBC says that the deal "includes 25% pay increases over the terms of the agreement, reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and other significantly enhanced benefits." As one example of how this will be practically felt, this means starting wages will now work out to at least $28/hr. Workers also appear to have won the abolition of tiers at several plants, and been guaranteed a right to strike over plant closures.
It seems likely that this deal will also serve as a template for deals with Stellantis and General Motors, who have thus far been much less willing to come to the table and negotiate with UAW.
Although the details aren't available yet, it appears many of the same details won in the Ford tentative agreement appear to be applicable to the Stellantis tentative agreement. You can hear the latest from UAW president Shawn Fain in this 12 minute Twitter video:
With the other two major auto manufacturers out of the picture, UAW has begun to focus its fire and ramp up pressure on GM. They're the remaining holdout in negotiations and have generally been the most resistant to UAW proposals out of the Big Three, at least from what I can tell. As a consequence of that and slow negotiations overall with the company, UAW began a walkout at another GM plant in Tennessee.
In just six weeks, the UAW has successfully brought three of the United States's largest and most influential companies to heel, and has done so without all of its members needing to go on strike. Diversity of tactics: it's pretty good!
Oh, and their proposed contract expiration dates are April 30th—for no particular reason. :)